Decadent Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries

I’m a habitual midnight snacker. Or, at the very least, late night snacker.

For instance, during the school year I head upstairs to do my homework at about 8. Now, we finish diner around 7 so I spend the next 30 to 45 minutes making my overnight oats and lunch for the next day. And then, even though I’ve already eaten dinner and am quite stuffed, I head to the pantry to look for a sweet snack. In the summer, it’s not much different. I may head upstairs later, but that just means that I’m free to spend more time snacking/searching for a sweet dessert to tide me over.

Well it turns out, chocolate covered strawberries aren’t as healthy as I always assumed they are. I mean, I thought since they have “strawberry” in the title, they at least had to be kind of healthy. Apparently, I was flat out wrong. Because for most chocolate covered strawberries, they strawberry to chocolate ratio is about 1:1, meaning they range from 50-100 calories a piece. (I know, right??)

So considering I’m usually going on my second dessert when I whip up a batch of these, I decided to make them as healthy as possible. The key to this is, first: dark chocolate. As everyone knows, dark chocolate can lower blood pressure, control blood sugar, is full of antioxidants, etc., etc. Which definitely makes them more beneficial than your run of the mill milk chocolate Hershey’s bar. The next trick is to use unsweetened chocolate in addition to your dark chocolate. This can both decrease the sugar and calories, as well as assure that the finished dessert isn’t sickly sweet.

Of course, I can’t resist taking these strawberries to the next level by coating them with coconut and cashews in addition to the chocolate. But using unsweetened, reduced fat coconut flakes increases the health factor and decreases the guilt factor.

So yes, I can almost always be found in the kitchen come 12 pm, but with these healthy, yet decadent, strawberries that’s not necessarily a bad thing! 😉

Decadent Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries

2 c strawberries (about 16 medium strawberries)

2 tbs dark chocolate chips (about 32 chocolate chips)

1 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

1 tbs unsweetened reduced fat coconut flakes

1 tbs cashews (or other nut of choice)

sweetener of choice (stevia, agave, etc.)

Melt chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave (microwave on 15 second increments, stirring in between heatings). Stir in the sweetener of choice. Chop (or crush) the cashews (or other nuts of choice). Spread the coconut flakes and crushed nuts evenly over two separate plates or sheets of parchment paper. Dip the strawberries in the chocolate, turning until all excess chocolate has dripped off. Roll in coconut flakes and set on wax or parchment paper. Repeat, alternating between crushed nuts and coconut flakes, until all remaining strawberries have been used. Let sit for 15 minutes to harden, or pop in the freezer for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information (from myfitnesspal.com)

Calories: 113

Fat: 8g

Carbs: 12g

Protein: 2g

(Yields 4 servings of 4 strawberries each)

By the way, sorry about the bad lighting in these photos! I actually took them around 10 pm, right before I enjoyed a few as my second dessert of the night! 😉